Georgia Trend Daily – March 11, 2022
March 11, 2022 Georgia.org
PepsiCo Beverages North America to Invest $260 Million in DeKalb County Manufacturing Expansion
Staff reports that Governor Brian P. Kemp yesterday announced that PepsiCo Beverages North America (PBNA), a division of PepsiCo, will invest $260 million in the expansion of its manufacturing facility in the City of Tucker. The expansion will create at least 136 full-time jobs, increasing the company’s total workforce in DeKalb County to over 600 full-time jobs.
March 11, 2022 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Red Blue & You: The Man of This Moment
Tharon Johnson writes, few predicted Andre Dickens’ victory before the general election and fewer still who could have anticipated his nearly 2-to-1 win in the runoff. Dickens ran a campaign very different than that of his opponents.
March 11, 2022 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta’s inflation tops 10%, higher than national average
Michael E. Kanell reports that annual inflation in metro Atlanta climbed into double-digits last month, far above the national average, pulled higher by the region’s housing, energy and food costs. And prices for consumers are seen rising even faster this month, fueled by skyrocketing oil and gas costs following Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine.
March 11, 2022 Capitol Beat News
Savannah Harbor dredging project completed
Dave Williams reports that the deepening of Savannah Harbor has been completed seven years after the $1 billion project began, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Wednesday. The harbor has been deepened from 42 feet to 47 feet to accommodate the giant containerized cargo ships now calling at the Port of Savannah regularly with fewer weight and tidal restrictions.
March 11, 2022 The Current
Ga. Supreme Court allows certification of spaceport vote
Mary Landers reports that the Georgia Supreme Court dealt another blow to Camden County’s spaceport plan when it denied the county’s request to stop the certification of Tuesday’s referendum in which voters roundly rejected the spaceport. Camden County Probate Judge Robert C. Sweatt Jr. will certify the election as “required under law,” said Attorney Kellye Moore of Perry-based Walker, Hulbert, Gray & Moore, who is representing the judge.
March 11, 2022 The Center Square
Georgia ranks in the middle of pack for its tax rates
T.A. DeFeo reports Georgia ranks in the middle of the pack when it comes to tax rates but trails several neighboring states, a new analysis from WalletHub revealed. “Georgia ranks among the top half of states with the lowest taxes,” WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez told The Center Square.
March 11, 2022 Savannah Morning News
Lawmaker: Port Wentworth city charter won’t be pulled yet but ‘shot fired across the bow’
Nancy Guan reports, after announcing the possibility of pulling Port Wentworth’s city charter, Chatham County’s state lawmakers say they’re holding off, giving the council a chance to work together.
March 11, 2022 Fresh Take Georgia
Georgia lawmakers push for suicide prevention efforts in schools
Taylor Reimann reports, some school counselors and lawmakers are concerned about Georgia children’s mental health, citing a recent rise in deaths by suicide. Jacob Dreiling, a mental health counselor in the Decatur public school system, said he has noticed an increase in suicidal thoughts among the students he sees.
March 11, 2022 Georgia Recorder
Bipartisan effort to reform Georgia’s wrongful conviction compensation process advances
Clay Voytek reports that two decades ago, Kerry Robinson was convicted for a 1993 rape in Moultrie after he was falsely implicated by one of the actual perpetrators and a state forensic analyst. Robinson, 46, spent nearly the next 18 years of his life in a Georgia prison until he was exonerated with DNA evidence in 2020.
March 11, 2022 Dalton Daily Citizen News, CNHI News
Anti-protest, riot bills advance in Georgia, states
Asia Ashley reports, as several states move to regulate protests and rioting, a Georgia committee on Tuesday advanced a bill that opponents say deter peaceful protests. The Republican-led proposal — approved along party lines in the Senate Judiciary Committee — would increase penalties for inciting a riot or mob intimidation, vandalism of private businesses and government property, assaulting first responders and obstructing a highway during unlawful assemblies of two or more people.
March 11, 2022 Brunswick News
Former Navy SEAL seeks U.S. Senate nomination
Gordon Jackson reports that Latham Saddler believes he is the most qualified candidate seeking the Georgia Republican Party’s nomination for U.S. Senate, especially with what’s unfolding in Ukraine. He served eight years as a Navy SEAL officer, including tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq before receiving orders to serve as Director of Intelligence Programs on the National Security Council during the Trump administration.
March 11, 2022 Capitol Beat News
Competing versions of COAM reform moving through General Assembly
Dave Williams reports that legislation making major changes to regulations governing Georgia’s coin-operated amusement machines (COAM) industry is back on the table in the General Assembly. But committees in the state House and Senate adopted significantly different versions of COAM reform this week.
March 11, 2022 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Herschel Walker’s business record reveals creditor lawsuits, exaggerated claims
Dylan Jackson and Greg Bluestein report, while football great Herschel Walker’s bid for the U.S. Senate hinges on his celebrity, he’s just as likely to bring up his reputation as a businessman on the campaign trail. At stops around the state and in online appeals, the Republican Senate front-runner boasts of creating several successful businesses and hundreds of jobs.
